Search - Free Radicals on DVD

No, things don't happen for a reason

Mamluk Man | Frederick MD | 02/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My pet peeve is people that think "things happen for a reason," which they don't. It's all random, folks! So when I saw this at the Toronto Film Festival in 2003, I was all excited. People come together randomly, and sometimes they stay together, and sometimes they don't, just like real life! Most are little vignettes, but you care about all the people. The story gets off the ground, so to speak, when an Austrian girl travels to Brazil on holiday; then her plane crashes on the return flight. This sets into motion a variety of consequences.

Incredibly, the director, an attractive young woman, did not see the young Austrian girl as the proverbial butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil and setting off unintended consequences elsewhere. This despite a shot of a Brazilian butterfly! Oh well. Great artists are not required to see all interpretations of their work--but this was so obvious!

Anyway, a refreshing antidote to the usual "it's inevitable" school of film making."

Interesting as an intellectual exercise, less so as a drama

Roland E. Zwick | Valencia, Ca USA | 01/26/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"**1/2

"Free Radicals" is a stark, slow-moving meditation on the randomness of life. Matching style to theme, this Austrian film relates a half dozen or so barely connected stories, all of which deal with the part fate and luck play in determining the direction of our lives. In some cases, the characters are the victims of accidents or illness, while in others they becomes prisoners of their own needs and desires. In all the cases, however, the characters live a drab, loveless existence, filled with unfulfilled dreams and loneliness.

Although the film begins with an interesting premise, the overall effect is so off-putting and depressing that we really can't enjoy the movie on anything but the most purely intellectual level. The people here just seem so miserable and unhappy that we want to get away from them as quickly as possible and head back to our own lives, imperfect though they might be. Perhaps by including so many characters, the film dilutes its focus, making it hard for us to fully identify with any one person and make us care about his or her fate. Despite good acting, this crazy quilt approach turns the movie into more of a clinical exercise than a deeper involving human drama, and lends it an air of greater pretentiousness than it might otherwise have had.

Enter the world of "Free Radicals" if you must, but you might want to take some Prozac along with you to help get you through it."